President Obama urges Congress to end government shutdown on first day of Obamacare implementation

Just over 13 hours into the government shutdown Tuesday, President Obama spoke out to urge Congress to pass a budget.

“My message to Congress is this, pass a budget. End the government shutdown,” Obama said in a speech in the White House Rose Garden. “Pay your bills. Prevent an economic shutdown. Don’t wait, don’t delay, don’t put our economy or our people through this any longer.”

Repeatedly calling it a “Republican shutdown,” Obama said Congress “demanded ransom just for doing their job.”

Congress failed Monday to pass legislation that would fund the government — making this the first time the government has shut down since 1996.

Obama said the shutdown was caused by House Republicans and is about “rolling back our efforts to provide health insurance to folks who don’t have it.”

However, as Obama pointed out, the Affordable Care Act was fully implemented Tuesday.

“The irony that the House Republicans have to contend with is they’ve shut down a whole bunch of parts of the government, but the Affordable Care Act is still open for business,” Obama said.

Healthcare through Obamacare is available on healthcare.gov and more than one million people have visited the site today, Obama said.

“For the 15 percent of Americans who don’t have health insurance, this opportunity is life-changing,” he said, adding most uninsured Americans will be able to sign up for health insurance and pay $100 or less each month.

Obama went on to again encourage Congress to come together and pass a government budget in order to not further harm the economy.

“Congress generally has to stop governing by crisis,” he said. “They have to break this habit. It is a drag on the economy. It is not worthy of this country.”